This story was submitted by KC Lau
I was staying in the state of Arizona, the USA after the 9/11 incident in 2001. My wife was working for Intel and I was a self-employed musician. When we went back to Penang in 2002, the first thing we did was hunt for our first home.
The property is about double the price on the Penang island compared to similar sized properties on the mainland. Anyway, due to time-saving factors, we narrowed our search to properties within a 5km radius from Penang Intel where my wife works. We could afford a property below RM300k.
Since we wanted to move into our new home immediately, we didn’t even consider any new development project because we didn’t want to wait a few years and keep on renting and moving again.
It boiled down to two major choices to make – a well-maintained apartment or a landed single-storey terrace house. For a freehold single-storey terrace, the price was above RM300k. But we had a lot more choices if we were fine with a leasehold title.
We viewed a few high-rise apartments and some were very well maintained. But both of us had been living in landed houses all this while. So we treasure the convenience of being able to park our vehicle within our housing compound, and not having to pay a monthly maintenance fee for the common facilities.
After viewing more than 20 properties within our budget, eventually, we bought a fully renovated single-storey terrace house. The property was nicely renovated and furnished with almost everything e.g. water heater, sofa, air-con, fridge, auto-gate, kitchen cabinet etc. So we moved in after a paint job and thorough cleaning.
The location was superb! My wife could reach her office within a 5-minute drive. Within 100 meters, I could reach the biggest wet market in the area, the biggest public swimming pool, the biggest convention centre and also a supermarket. Even the major banks and famous eateries were just within 100 meters walking distance.
Cutting the story short, we were happy to have made that wise decision because we got to enjoy a very cosy property without much capital outlay. Some people fear the leasehold status, but yet we managed to sell the property in 2013 for RM510k, more than double the price we paid which was RM250k back in 2002.
Years later, we moved to a new semi-detached landed property. We liked that property too. But there was a major problem that we couldn’t control. The owner of the property next to us was an investor. We never met him and the disturbing fact is that he let out his property to foreign workers. This was something we never expected because logically, who would buy a semi-detached landed property for foreign workers to stay in? Well, my neighbour did!
There were 16 aliens staying next to us. We don’t mean to discriminate any nationality or race, but if I have a choice, I would prefer to stay in a good neighbourhood. A few years later, we moved and the property is still stuck there until today. I tried to sell it and the major concern of any potential buyer is the “special neighbour”. Who would want to spend millions of ringgit to stay beside foreign workers?
Then we realised that whenever possible, it is best to buy a sub-sale property for our own stay because we get to choose who will be living next to us!
About the Author: KCLau is a financial educator. He had published 6 books and co-created a dozen online financial courses. You can download his popular Money Tips e-book packed with 44 money hacks absolutely free, here: http://kclau.com/lp
